I don't like the term "insane". I prefer "mentally hilarious".
(Shamelessly stolen from Bryan and Kathy Shepley :-)
Friday, February 26, 2010
Climatological wishful thinking
This is one winter that makes global warming sound like a pretty darned good idea.
Andrew Koenig's most amazing role
By now you've no doubt heard about actor Andrew Koenig, who was found dead in a park in Vancouver, Canada several hours ago.
Most people remember Koenig (son of Walter Koenig who played Pavel Chekov on Star Trek) as "Boner", the best friend of Kirk Cameron's Mike Seaver on Growing Pains. But a few years ago there was a film that Andrew Koenig appeared in, and played no small part. Indeed, for the many of us who have seen this we can't but be astonished at the incredible power and potential that Koenig had as an actor. It was definitely a sign that he was going to go far. I've even heard some say that Koenig's portrayal of the Joker is the most faithful take on the character in cinema history.
So in memory of Andrew Koenig, here is Batman: Dead End...
Thursday, February 25, 2010
This blog needs some more beautiful on it...
...so once again, here is my cousin Lauryn.
Curiously, every time I post a photo of her, this blog's counter starts skyrocketing.
Question for my Twitter-in' peeps
What's the best third-party application/front end thingy to use with Twitter?
I'm beginning to use my own Twitter account a lot more, including photos and probably video as well. It would also be nice to have something that would, if at all possible, automatically aggregate tweets/twits/whatever addressed to me so that I see 'em without having to just happen upon them.
So what would y'all recommend? :-)
Not a trap: Ole Miss might make Admiral Ackbar its new sports mascot
The University of Mississipi, better known as Ole Miss, retired its previous mascot Colonel Reb a few years ago. The school has put it up to the student body to select the next standard bearer of athletic pride.
Looks like Ole Miss is going to replace a colonel with an admiral. Namely, Admiral Ackbar from the Star Wars movies. Ackbar has emerged as the front-runner among the possible candidates for the mascot job.
"It's a trap!"? No, and it's not a joke either. Assuming the lawyers at Lucasfilm (who I have a more than cursory knowledge about, and that's as much as I dare say about that) lets Ole Miss do it, the Mon Calamari tactical genius who orchestrated the assault on the second Death Star could very well be leading the cheers at the football and basketball games!
I like what one person has said about Admiral Ackbar at Ole Miss: "Well it does rebrand the Confederate cause in far more positive way -- I say they run with it. In fact, Ackbar's leadership as a symbol of the diversity of the Rebel Alliance against the human supremacist Empire reverses the whole image problem! Remember, the Rebel Alliance was fighting Palpatine's 'Grand Army of the Republic.'"
Yeah, I guess that's one way of looking at it. But still, even being a die-hard Star Wars geek (and proud of it!), if I were at Ole Miss and had some say in who the new sports mascot should be, and if it had to be an aquatic alien, I wouldn't have considered Admiral Ackbar at all (no offense Acky).
Instead I would have suggested Cthulhu from the writings of H.P. Lovecraft...
Can you imagine the sheer terror that would be evoked by such a thing? And hey, Ole Miss could rename their team to be the "Ole Miss Old Ones"!!
Color me officially intrigued by Bloom Energy
Heaven only knows how many alternative energy schemes have been proposed over the years, only to watch all of 'em that come to mind fail to deliver the promised goods of cheap, clean power.
But having read about it for the past few weeks, and now seeing what was unveiled yesterday by the company, I think there's a LOT of potential in what Bloom Energy has come up with.
Imagine ten years from now, having a brick-sized energy server supplying all of the electricity to your house. No power lines or anything. A few weeks ago my house went 22 hours without power during a severe winter storm, along with 43,000 other people in this county. That would be a thing of the past, along with monthly bills from the power company.
Well, possibly. PCWorld's website has ten questions about the Bloom Energy Server that lots of folks will probably be asking.
Can't wait to see how this unfolds :-)
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Had an interesting day
Edited a bunch of video, worked on a writing project, fixed a nasty computer problem, got sent on an impromptu medical mission of mercy of sorts, and tonight I found something that I've been searching for the past, oh, twenty-two years.
And thank the Lord, it didn't snow!
Now let's see what the morrow brings with it...
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
"Lighthouse": Post-episode reaction to tonight's LOST
Did that one get called, or what?
So 108 and 23 played a huge part of "Lighthouse" toward the end of the episode. But what's Jacob game here?
I'm starting to get a bit impatient about the flashsideways-es. This episode was in my opinion the best single-character centric look at the other timeline, and in spite of himself Jack is a terrific father. But what is the purpose of this other reality... and why are we seeing it at all? Questions abound and the clock is ticking down on opportunities to explain that and the bajillion other mysteries left on Lost.
I'm beginning to think that "Christian Shepherd" on the island was the Man in Black all along, and Claire sided with his camp as long ago as "Cabin Fever". Sure seems that way, the way Claire introduced Jin to "my friend".
So is that the explanation for the numbers?! Probably more to it than that but if not, that's still a heckuva neat purpose for them.
The teaser for next week promises answers. We'll see.
I'll give "Lighthouse" an 8.5 out of 10.
Is the Joker on the loose in Mayberry?
Sheriff Andy now has green hair and a red smile painted on his face. His sheriff's badge is also now colored red. Opie was unharmed.
You can read all about it here.
I don't think that whoever did this has any idea of the trouble they're in. This being North Carolina, and Mount Airy (the inspiration for Mayberry on the show) of all places, an attack on Sheriff Taylor is downright sacrilege.
Sounds like the Joker is afoot in Mayberry. Time to load up your bullet Barney!
Speed of light slowed to 38 miles per hour
Light in a vacuum travels at about 186,000 miles per second. Now a group of scientists has slowed down a beam of light so that it only goes 38 miles per hour.
They did it by sending the light through super-cooled sodium atoms, which worked "like molasses" on the photons.
38 miles per hour? That's about half as fast as I usually drive :-P
Jessica Watson is 3/4ths of the way home
So you might be asking "Who is Jessica Watson?"
I've been following Jessica Watson's journey with great interest since it began this past October. At 16, this young lass from Sydney, Australia is endeavouring to become the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe in a sailboat, alone and unaided. She left the harbor in Sydney on October 17th 2009, headed on an easterly track that went north and back across the Equator. On January 14th Jessica rounded Cape Horn (her first sighting of land since taking off) at the southernmost tip of South America and began the Atlantic Ocean leg of her 23,000 nautical mile journey.
Sometime today - if she hasn't already - Jessica Watson should be conquering Cape Agulhas on the southern tip of Africa and enter the Indian Ocean. Then once she gets to Australia she merely has to sail around Down Under and get back to Sydney.
Visit Jessica Watson's official website for more information about her amazing odyssey, including a blog that she's maintaining on the trip and a page that uses Google Earth with GPS tracking that shows her present location and the track of her voyage thus far.
And Jessica: You go girl!! :-)
Two reasons why tonight's LOST episode could be more important than most
Reason #1: it's airing on February 23rd.
Reason #2: this will be the 108th hour of Lost since the show first began airing in fall of 2004.
With 23 being one of "the numbers" and 108 being the sum of the numbers, good money is on tonight's episode - titled "Lighthouse" - will wind up being rather monumental. Many keen Lost fans noted that last week's "The Substitute" aired on the eve of Ash Wednesday.
Lost at 9 tonight. Expect the usual post-episode reaction and thoughts afterward on this space :-)
Have you ever noticed...
...that everyone in the Bible who found "favor with God", without a single exception, encountered severe trials and troubles?
(Credit goes to friend and fellow blogger Kevin Bussey for that observation. One that I have been led to meditate much upon in the past several days.)
